Waking up to a championship overseas (with a hefty dose of ESPN frustration)
My wife and I live in the UK, so I went to bed last night with a strange, uneasy feeling knowing I'd wake up to either a championship win, a championship loss, or news that the tornadoes forecast for the Houston area had caused irreperable damage to NRG Stadium, postponing the game indefinitely. Surely my fellow fans abroad can relate.
It's been the most incredible, surreal, cathartic, glorious, joyous feeling to wake up this morning to text after text sent in the night from family and friends celebrating our first championship in about a quarter-century. As someone who's read the blog and the board quasi-religiously since the post-Rich Rod coaching search, waking up to nearly two pages of posts about winning a NATIONAL FUCKING CHAMPIONSHIP(!!!) warms my heart. Go Blue!
On another note--the morning after a night game I go check the highlights on YouTube to see how things actually played out. Watching ESPN's highlights just now--which are so poor that I wouldn't link them, ban notwithstanding--really lays bare the network's pervasive anti-Michigan bias.
In about 22 minutes of highlights, they leave out one of our field goals to go up 20-13, the touchdown to go up 34-13, the Will Johnson (I presume?) interception, and any drives associated with these plays. Instead, they show, like, EACH and EVERY 8-15 yard midfield completion by Penix in drives that end without points! For some reason, they give three angles of a seemingly inconsequential incompletion from JJ to Loveland broken up by W. These highlights are such absolute crap that, as an M fan, it feels like I didn't really see the story of our team's win. The disrespect is real. Michigan vs everybody.
No wonder 2/3 of the ESPN staff picked Washington to beat us! These highlights show that they value the very aesthetic of an explosive passing attack over efficiency and real points. It's what Harbaugh says that these people just don't get: The only number that matters is the score. And damn it, we scored more points than them.
If anyone has an alternative, superior source for highlights or a replay, please share! I'm going to browse through the thread started by the bloke in China from a few days ago, as well.
Go Blue, thank you to Brian, Seth, and the blog, and thank you to the players and coaching staff who delivered the win we've been waiting on for so long!
January 9th, 2024 at 7:11 AM ^
Defending National Champions: Day 1.
I like the sound of that.
January 9th, 2024 at 7:17 AM ^
Remember - it’s Michigan vs everybody.
And that’s why we stick together. We climbed the mountain, and everybody knows it. Denial is the first stage of grief for everybody. Go blue!
January 9th, 2024 at 7:17 AM ^
Cheers!
January 9th, 2024 at 7:33 AM ^
Aye, it's a braw national fecking championship, but those edjits at ESPN have theirs heads up their arses (say it with a Scottish accent).
January 9th, 2024 at 8:21 AM ^
lol, my wife is concerned for my safety every time I do a Scottish accent in public. Aye no cannae feggur et oot.
January 9th, 2024 at 8:33 AM ^
If you want to sound otherworldly, either sound like a Geordie or walk around talking about Michigan's success in a broad Yorkshire accent, I would think. I plan on doing the latter today.
January 9th, 2024 at 7:36 AM ^
Fuck ESPN. If that organization blew up today, I would just smile.
January 9th, 2024 at 11:55 AM ^
SVP was trying so hard to put an asterisk next to Michigan's win last night in his stupid post game show. What a douche.
January 9th, 2024 at 7:41 AM ^
One thing about this season that will always be utterly hilarious is the amount of time, money and effort that ESPN put into trying to give their core audience no basis for believing that what happened last night was even remotely possible. I assume that the network is, as a result, somewhat bummed, and that some analysts will be on the air today with endless, and now quite useless (as there are no games left this season) hypotheticals.
January 9th, 2024 at 8:08 AM ^
Now all they have left is their "Harbaugh is definitely leaving" narrative. Which feels even more annoying now, if it's even possible for ESPN to be more annoying.
January 9th, 2024 at 7:47 AM ^
I’d just watch YouTube clips and the bigten network. Other than that, the coverage going forward on ESPN is going to be “what is Harbaugh going to do” and “asterisks?” That’ll be it for coverage on SECESPN
January 9th, 2024 at 7:49 AM ^
I haven't seen the ESPN highlights (and maybe I won't bother), so, fine....but I will say Herbie and Fowler were nothing but complimentary after the game. For example, one of their points: Penix may have looked off all game, but Michigan's defense did that to him.
It is definitely sweet to throw it back in the faces of the not-even-close majority of ESPN "experts" who picked Washington.
January 9th, 2024 at 8:24 AM ^
Well, damn right! When you see what happened to Penix's QBR under pressure all year wrong, it's like this was bound to happen against Michigan's D. Maybe the network will finally have their come-to-Jesus moment.
January 9th, 2024 at 9:40 AM ^
Why would they have such a moment? Be realistic; defense, especially a tenacious one, ain't sexy enough to string together a quick bunch of highlights. It's way easier to show Penix making throws v Texas as opposed to showing UM's defense getting hurries, forcing missed throws, causing pass drops, or breaking up passes.
I couldn't care less what ESPN or anyone on their network says. We don't need their approval or validation or even their respect. We won the game and the Championship.
January 9th, 2024 at 10:39 AM ^
Defense is sexy. There was a highlight clip of the 2006 defense’s hardest hits set to Pantera that was so good. We watched it dozens of times before it was taken down.
January 9th, 2024 at 9:19 AM ^
On SVP post game Fowler was asked is there an asterisk on this for M. He said no. No asterisk. But then went on bit about subtext blah blah blah. Guessing someone got in his ear after he said no. It was weird.
January 9th, 2024 at 12:54 PM ^
Herbie and Fowler were tremendous. Rece had to take a shot while interviewed by Scott Van Pelt. SVP did good on ESPN after. It’s all the rest of them that suck ass.
January 9th, 2024 at 7:54 AM ^
Parkinggod HIghlights, no telling how long they will be up.
January 9th, 2024 at 8:16 AM ^
Thank you! What a difference. The ESPN highlights tell the story that Washington beat themselves despite an unstoppable passing attack. These highlights tell the story that Michigan was more physical and dominant from start to finish, especially on the ground. Hell yes.
January 9th, 2024 at 8:34 AM ^
That story isn't entirely true. The second and third quarter was a lot of Michigan trying to run to no success. Washington adjusted and put up a fight after the first punch. Both teams had a lot of missed opportunities. It was a close game where we took their soul at the end, which was awesome.
Go blue!
January 9th, 2024 at 8:46 AM ^
Part of the story - a big part - about UW's 'adjustments' is that Moore stopped using most of the playbook and ran straight into a wall with the LB's firing the very moment JJ looked towards a back. He (Moore) stopped using play action, most of the motion was dialed way back, no more unbalanced formations (where Edwards' TDs came from), zero reads or JJ keeps, and the pass game went to sideline outs and nothing more. He went very basic, as if the game was already over except for the coronation.
I don't get it, but this is a Michigan trait more so than a Moore trait, I believe, since Michigan has been doing that as long as I can remember. Nonetheless, Sherrone normally pulls his head out of his ass when it absolutely needs to get done. And, sure enough, all that stuff came back with ~10 minutes left in the game. Went from 20-13 to 34-13 before UW realized what was happening.
January 9th, 2024 at 8:57 AM ^
That was the feeling I was getting, too, but I figured I could have been missing something. Either way, we were not bullying them and winning the line of scrimmage during that portion.
January 9th, 2024 at 8:26 AM ^
Hats off to parkinggod, what an absolute fucking legend.
January 9th, 2024 at 8:30 AM ^
The difference in this game were big plays that were all won once again in the trenches. Michigan with 2 huge TD runs. Michigan intercepting the ball first play of the 2nd half because of a collapsed pocket. What a freaking game!
January 9th, 2024 at 8:33 AM ^
Toughest bastards in college football since 2021. I love this team.
January 9th, 2024 at 7:59 AM ^
nfl dash video dot com
Navigation bar on the left side. Go Blue!
January 9th, 2024 at 8:25 AM ^
Legend.
January 9th, 2024 at 8:07 AM ^
There was nothing aesthetically pleasing about Washingtons offense last night. We were relentless. Dinks and dunks down the field is all they could do. One time.
This defense ate their lunch. And then threw the lunch box at them
January 9th, 2024 at 9:56 AM ^
Then the defense stuffed them in the lunch box and threw the box in a locker. Complete bullies!
January 9th, 2024 at 8:14 AM ^
Thanks for the heads-up on the ESPN highlight package. Saw it on youtube and figured I'd check it out later but sounds like it's not worth the 22 minutes.
January 9th, 2024 at 8:17 AM ^
To be fair that whole conglomerate is uncertain about many ordinary things. Don't consider the source.
January 9th, 2024 at 8:19 AM ^
Those who stay...
January 9th, 2024 at 8:25 AM ^
As a fellow alum living abroad in France I can relate to your issue with ESPN highlights in a general sense, I consistently find them to be lacking. Of course, I can’t relate to your specific dilemma because I woke up at 1am to watch the whole game. Paying for it today though. I envy your restraint to not do the same.
January 9th, 2024 at 8:31 AM ^
haha, I was kind of worried there'd be hordes of alums angrily commenting on this post who stayed up all night to watch. I admire your dedication. Très bien. Geaux bleu.
January 9th, 2024 at 8:31 AM ^
Glad you got to celebrate the win over the pond!
Just ignore the haters.
January 9th, 2024 at 10:39 AM ^
I thought it was a bit ironic that Stephen A. was in a box with a bunch of Michigan fans, including Derek Jeter.
January 9th, 2024 at 10:48 AM ^
That struck me more as a “Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf” moment. Everything is contrived for the cameras, and they all work for the same corporate sponsor.